The Bather (Mauro)

The Bather, also known as Sluzie In the Jacuzzi^[1] or The Floozie in the Jacuzzi, is a bronze sculpture by Gary Mauro, measuring at 77 inches (6 feet 5 inches or 1.9558 m) in length,^[2] located on the campus of Saint Louis University, Midtown, Missouri, along the pathway between Ritter Hall and Tegler Hall.^[1] The sculpture depicts a fully nude, toned, female figure stretched out in a pool of falling water. The figure's pose was made to resemble that of Michelangelo's work depicting God on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.^[2] The surface's rough texture was inspired by Auguste Rodin's finishing technique.^[2] The sculpture was completed in 1997, it was then bought by the University's president at the time, president Lawrence H. Biondi for $35200. Originally, the sculpture was intended to be a 13″ Marquette called Tara Reclining before a prominent art collector encouraged Mauro to create what is known today as The Bather.^[2]

Gary Mauro (1944^[2] - 2021^[3]) was born in Walsenburg, Colorado before later residing in New York City and Santa Fe. Mauro studied at the University of Oklahoma and later at the University of Colorado Art school^[4] where he received his master's degree in fine arts.^[5][6]

Mauro's artistic expression was heavily influenced by his southwest identity, his friendship with modernist Willem de Kooning^[2], artist Richard Diebenkorn, and, presumably, his Italian ancestry.

Mauro's subject matter heavily focused on the "idealization of the female body".^[7] While many feel a sense of discomfort, or apprehensiveness towards Mauro's work he defends his "genuine respect for women that eclipses any feeling of embarrassment or lasciviousness" by voicing his opinions on the issue of taboo-nudity as a western concept. "Europeans accept and even celebrate human form in their art; here, however, there is a puritanical attitude that automatically identifies the nude with something nasty...When someone chastises me for my subject selection, I simply tell them to find another artist. I draw what pleases me ... and that happens to be the female form." Mauro defended. He further explains that this type of human form appreciation in artwork has existed for many years. "The subject is the same—the figure, human form, the nude," he says. "The Renaissance revival of humanism took its inspiration from the Greeks' focus on the human form as the precedent for art. Although my materials are new, I want my work to be an extension of that classical expression which has surfaced periodically throughout Western art history."^[5]

Other artworks of his included depictions of animals such as deer, elk, cougars, cranes and horses.^[5]

• Nouvella; bronze sculpture.
• Nude; oil painting.

Mauro was honored at president Biondi's admiration for his work and his consideration for the purchase of one of his sculptures, so much so that he offered St Louis University a substantial discount of 30% on three sculpture options. The options included: The Bather, Nouvella, and S. Theresa.

Seemingly, the original purchase only included Nouvella, but The bather was later added on per president Biondi's request.

When the statue was first placed on campus, members of the St. Francis Xavier College Church, also known as simply College Church, were heavily offended by the statue's presence and visibility. Church members called for a relocation of the statue. While president Biondi did not comply with their requests, he did compromise by enclosing the statue with trees and shrubbery to decrease its visibility from the street and church.^[8]

Bare Naked Statues is SLU's all-male a Capella group founded in fall of 2000.^[9] BNS's name was heavily influenced by the frisbee games of the founding members. These frisbee games would take place between The Bather and another naked statue on the university campus. "Sluzie in the Jacuzzi was one of the honorary players" Rob Turner, one of the founding members of BNS, '04, recollects.^[1]

Many members of the Saint Louis community, students and faculty alike, feel as though the statue is out-of-place on the very Catholic-Jesuit university campus. Many go as far as to describe the statue as "tacky", "lacks artistic merit", and is "disrespectful" due to the nature of the statues nakedness, posture and pose, and location. Many students and faculty disagreed with president Biondi's choice of artworks on campus and his artistic envision for the university, these critiques extend to The Bather.^[10] While others can appreciate her outlier-ed nature among the very religious depiction of women, mainly that of The Virgin Mary, found around campus. Regardless, many agree with the statue's craftsmanship.